Many thanks to your reply, I did check the settings and they were as you said. But I have redone my project and changed the fonts and all is ok. I am new to DTP and your help was of a great help. All I have to do is get a pdf file to print a custom size paper size and I would be happy. But HP say it not the printer that controls the size output but Adobe. I have just download Adobe XI pro and it still does not work. Trying to solve some of these problems you just go round in circles.Once again thank youGraham

A tip: when printing from Adobe Reader, pay attention to "Scaling" option in the Print dialog. If you want your document to be printed in "real" dimensions instead of being smaller/larger than intended, set scaling to "None".

It turns out the problem here seems to be that his printer does not support setting a "custom" paper size, and if the printer is set to A4 paper size Adobe Reader (and Acrobat?) will print the page centered on the A4 page (not at the edge).

In earlier versions of Adobe Reader there is a checkbox for "Auto rotate and center", but that checkbox seems to have been removed in Reader X (maybe even 9, I only know it's present in Reader 7 and Reader . I only have access to Reader 7, 8 and X, and Acrobat 7.

Set the size to 100% if you want to print the document. The HP drivers offer a 'fit to page' option, which reduces the A4 in size so that it fits into the printer margins (defined by the printer), that means the printed document will always be a tad smaller than the original.

On the other hand I don't know how Windows handles the PDF files - on the Mac you have a built-in PDF viewer which prints without any flaws.

I don't know if you've already purchased Adobe PDF. There is an alternative: GhostScript, GS View (for Windows only), and a version of Gutenprint. Just check if your HP printer is supported, and you can print everything in PostScript - the GhostScript engine will 'translate' the code to PCL (printer command language) in your printer. GhostScript and Gutenprint are free, GS View costs a few Euro/Dollars.

With GhostScript you can even print directly from Scribus, print the document, print separations, etc.

If you want even more features, you might check 'printfab' for Windows. It's a complete Postscript RIP (Raster Image Processor), also based on GhostScript without any limitations and without the installation hassle. Just make sure that your printer model is supported.

"For printer" means CMYK PDK, "for screen/web" means RGB PDF. Usually you should NOT use "for printer" if you are going to print on a regular printing.

So, my advice is:

1. Make sure all fonts are embedded2. Export to PDF for screen/web

If that does not help, we need more information.

I was having the exact problem that the original poster described, and Nermander's response fixed it, so this post amounts to a bump for this useful thread.

Bottom line is, when Scribus says Export "for printer," it means export for use by a print shop, not a home or office inkjet printer. If you want your readers to be able to print out a hardcopy on their own printer, you need to export "for screen/web".

I don't think re-opening it would do much good. A quick read says to me that there's enough of an argument between the various sides that no-one will be able to make a decision that everyone likes.

For me "Output Intended For: Screen/Web" says that you're not going to print it (but your user might if they want to) and "Output Intended For: Printer" says that you are going to print it somehow (but you might not know how).

The tool-tip sort of gives you an idea of what to expect but how many people will know whether their home printer is a "true 4-colour CMYK printer"? They might know it's got inks that are those colours and think that's enough. (Don't average home printer drivers convert to RGB at some point anyway, even if they convert back later? I think I read that somewhere.)

If "Output Intended for" was changed to something like "How to handle colours" then the options could be changed to: Standard Screen Document / Separate Colours for Print Shop / Convert to Greyscale.

That way, even if someone finds the option and is curious, the "Separate Colours" wording should put people off using it unless they know what they're doing.

I think it's the innocuous wording of just "Printer" that will be be confusing people. To the average user a printer is just the box on their desk. If the wording was changed to make it more scary then most people will just stick with the default.

Long story short: I agree that the wording needs to be made clearer but I can't see a consensus on what to do about it appearing any time soon.

Whether the text is hard-coded or in a resource file it shouldn't be much more than a find/replace operation. That's for the English version at least; other languages will probably take more time to get translated.

Like you say, no wording will be perfect but as long as it tells the average user what's going on then it will be better than it currently is. Pro users will know what they're doing anyway; it's the average user/beginner that gets confused with this.

I don't know if it would be better to open an old ticket or just create a new one. I don't have a preference myself. I'll leave that up to people who know the team/system better.